One of the reasons Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear was because of his brother Theo’s engagement. At least, this is the idea being put forward by British art historian Martin Bailey in The Art Newspaper.

On 23 December 1888, Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear. He took it to a prostitute in a hotel in Arles in southern France where he was living at the time. The painter died one and a half years later following a suicide attempt.

The ear incident has been the subject of much research, and Martin Bailey thinks he has found a new reason to explain it. The day that Van Gogh cut off his ear, he had received a letter informing him of his brother Theo’s engagement.

Fear of losing attention
"I think he had ambivalent feelings,” say Martin Bailey speaking from London.
 

“On the one hand, he was very dependent on his brother Theo, both in an emotional sense, since they were quite close to one another, and in a financial sense, because Theo supported Vincent financially throughout his career. I believe he feared he would lose some of his brother's attention and there would be less money available for him. On the other hand, he wanted his brother to be happy."

Dr Bailey quotes a letter from Theo to his fiancée, Jo Bonger, which has recently been published. Theo had just visited his brother in hospital where he was being treated for his ear injury. Despite being badly confused, the painter knew precisely who Jo was and that she was going to marry Theo. He gave his brother his blessing, but pointed out that marriage was not the only thing in life.

In love
It is interesting to note that Vincent, shortly after this incident, painted a letter from his brother in his Still Life with a Plate of Onions. Dr Bailey explains:

“In the front of the painting, there’s an envelope addressed, in his brother’s handwriting, to Vincent in Arles. The stamps show it was posted in Montmartre, where Theo lived. The postmark dates it to the period before Christmas. I think this was the letter in which Theo wrote that he was in love with Jo. Perhaps after a time, Vincent got used to the idea of the engagement, but the fact that he picks this letter to paint is interesting.”

Martin Bailey has published a lot about art in general and about Vincent van Gogh in particular. He does not contend that the news of Theo’s engagement was the only reason the painter tried to cut off his ear:

"It's a complicated story, he was a complicated person. I don't think there’s one simple explanation for his medical problems. I suspect it was a combination of things which made him mutilate his ear."

Highly speculative
Art historian Nienke Bakker from Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum is acquainted with Dr Bailey’s theory. Research carried out at the museum indicates that his idea about the stamps is correct. However, she describes Dr Bailey’s other conclusions as “highly speculative”. “Van Gogh actually encouraged his brother to find a wife and have a family,” she argues. “We just don’t know why he cut off his ear.”
Earlier this year, German scholars put forward the idea that, during a row, the painter Paul Gauguin caught Van Gogh’s ear with a sword. Few people back this theory. It is generally held that Van Gogh was confused after a row with Gauguin, but that his underlying emotional and physical problems meant that he was highly unstable.